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[RAKninja]

rather than just the outlet space,  what about the middle layers of the stack?

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Excuse me, I was incorrect-- eventually, a dwarf working in the 0-tick magma tile began bleeding, and losing all of his fat.  (I tested with temp both on and off, and may have missed some effects if I didn't do things exactly the same under both conditions.)  If people still are interested in dwarven liposuction, I believe this represents a relatively safe and easy way to burn the fat off of dwarven bodies.  (Note that the affected dwarf's clothes had already rotted off, so you might want to be a little careful regarding worn items).  Further research ideas:

a) Will 0-tick water extinguish fires?
b) Can you bring water to the top of a pump stack in freezing conditions by building top-to-bottom?  (Such a system should be a dead-simple hail generator.)
c) Can you pump magma through the same space that you pump water, at the same time or rather on alternating ticks, without creating obsidian?  (Such a system might be useful for freeze-proof pump stacks.)

I've designed, but not yet built, a device that I think is novel, dwarfy, and effective, based on build-order principles: the magma curtain.  Edit: But it doesn't work, so I've put all of my discussion of it inside spoiler tags.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

##*###    gear to power
# %%7#     left-to-right pump
#^%%7#    critter-triggered plate, right-to-left pump
####7#          full (very important!), sealed reservoir
######

cross-section of hallway containing magma curtain
build order: lower pump, gear, upper pump, pressure plate (linked to gear)

Basically, when you turn it on, it fills the affected tile with magma, but not just any magma-- magma that doesn't flow.  It's a wall of fire.  You could put it in open space, or build a usable well over it (with a water version) if you wanted.  You could fill one level with water and the level above it with magma, no floor between, and the two would never mix.

I believe that such a device will be fluid-conserving, have zero latency (for either turning on or off, although I believe a 0-latency both-ways version is also possible), and block flyers (unlike hatch-over-channel devices).  I also believe a version capable of creating a three-lane magma curtain is possible, by pumping through a u-bend, up through a grate.  I need to do some testing to see how building destroyers deal with grates covered with magma (will they path or not?) and the impassable tile of screw pumps.

A water version should work as a contamination-free dwarven bathtub-- a dwarven pressure-washer.  With dry land a single tile in every direction, I doubt that drowning is a risk, but a little swimming skill might be an extra bonus.  I'm building a water version first, because I want to see how it interrupts dwarves-- a better quantum stockpile might be possible.

It's going to take me a while to exhaust the possibilities for zero-latency path manipulation, without requiring a floor tile.  For instance, a goblin could be constrained to a single drop hatch, by closing in on him with walls of water.

Obviously, I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

rather than just the outlet space,  what about the middle layers of the stack?

I tested a two-pump stack.  In my stack, magma spent a fraction of a tick in the tile I was examining-- it was neither present at the beginning of the tick nor the end of the tick.  I expect the results from the two-pump stack to apply to a stack of any height.

[Di]

I've built one of those synchronized pumpstacks by Hussel a while back, can't remember if I had reported that in better pumpstack thread.
A goblin in the intermediate levels and a wooden axle I've put there didn't last long. Interesting part is that only diagonal wall tiles were marked as warm.
As for fps, this design definitely pumps the magma faster, resulting in less temperature calculations if those aren't carried out all the time.

Edit: Answer to Nil's ninja post:
When trying to build an aboveground magma teleportation system I've had minor fun, because of absence of walls. My guess would be that flowing is calculated when liquid is placed.

[Girlinhat]

Hmm, if that's all true, you could make a 2-wide hallway with pumps pushing magma into the hallway, and 0-tick pumps pulling it out.  Pressurized reservoirs would allow for constant flow, effectively keeping anything in the hallway in a quantum magma burn - both burned and yet not actually inside any magma.  This may suffice to burn off fat and clothing and lightly simmer goblins.

[o_O[WTFace]]

A magma curtain like that might be a great way to remove contaminants too, if they just burn right off. 

[Nil Eyeglazed]

A goblin in the intermediate levels and a wooden axle I've put there didn't last long. Interesting part is that only diagonal wall tiles were marked as warm.

Yeah, now that you mention it, that's true of mine as well.

When trying to build an aboveground magma teleportation system I've had minor fun, because of absence of walls. My guess would be that flowing is calculated when liquid is placed.

Yeah, my design doesn't work, suggesting either water is deciding to flow inside of 1 tick, or else that my upper pump isn't teleporting water into the bottom of the reservoir and thus getting blocked.  Further research needed, I suppose.

[Nameless Archon]

So to confirm, 0-tick magma stacks still incur an FPS penalty of temperature updates?

0-tick magma stack with expanded T-reservoir to avoid the temperature recalculations = fast magma movement without FPS hit from temps, though, right?

[darkrider2]

The Dwarf Fortress forums really need an official stamp that can be issued to threads of significant and/or greater science, such as this one.

[Snaake]

Yeah, I ought to give credit where it's due.  In my case, I first discovered the idea that build order affects pump operation on Hussell's wiki page.  All I've done are confirming experiments, as well as, maybe, put together a somewhat cohesive theory of build order.  The theory was probably obvious to some people.  To me, though, build order used to be a collection of disparate facts, and now I feel like I understand it as a unified thing.

This. I knew some of these from reading the wiki, but now I understand why it happens, which should make using them a lot easier.